. 
81 
GENERAL NOTES. 
LEAD-BORING INSECTS. 
We notice in the Scientific American of June 13, 1891, an item quoted 
from the Gesundheit’s Ingenieur of January 15, 1891, in which K. Hart- 
mann relates a case of a lead pipe “ cut through by an insect that was 
actually found with its head in the hole pierced by it. A 
workman was called to repair a defective pipe which had 
been injured on a previous occasion, as was reported, by a 
‘nail hole’ occurring in a soldered joint. This time the 
worm (a ‘ wood wasp’) causing the mischief was found in 
situ. The hole on the exterior of the pipe was of a rounded 
form, about one-quarter of an inch long by one-eighth inch 
wide, and the penetration was through the entire thickness — 
Fic. 1.—Minié 
of the metal.” Sake ada 
A similar instance of an insect boring through metal was — by wood -bor- 
reported by Mr. Charles R. Dodge in Field and Forest for ™% ?™V% nat. 
size (after C. 
June, 1877, p. 217. He says: R. Dodge). 
ing 
We recently received a singular specimen of insect injury in the shape of a ‘ minié” 
ball which had been gnawed through by a wood-boring larva. The ball had been 
fired into a red oak tree, probably during the war, and when split out of the log,a 
few days ago, was found in the track. of a full grown larva, probably of an Ortho- 
soma, the burrow leading directly through the bullet, This the grub had evidentty 
struck at its concave end, boring two-thirds its length and coming out at one side, 
somewhat below the apex. The larva was found in the burrow, alive, only a short 
distance above the bullet, the latter nearly retaining its normal shape, the end only 
having been slightly flattened. The specimen was found by Dr. W. O. Eversfield 
near the Agricultural College, Maryland, and both bullet and larva are preserved 
together. 
We publish an illustration of the minié ball described above, now 
preserved in the National Museum, showing the burrow of the larva 
from the concave end of the bullet upward and outward. 
DAMAGE TO TURNIP AND SWEDE CROPS IN EASTERN BRITAIN. 
Bell’’s Messenger of July 27 contains an account of the damage which 
is being done the present season on the east coast of Britain to the tur- 
nip and swede crops by the caterpillar of the Diamond-back Moth 
(Plutella cruciferarum), known in this country as the Cabbage Plutella. 
Miss Ormerod is said to have issued a leaflet on the subject and to have 
distributed it widely through the affected region. The principal dis- 
tricts affected are about Lowestoft, in Norfolk; Holbeach, in Lincoln- 
shire, and several localities in Yorkshire and Northumberland, Berwick, 
the Lothians, Fife, and Forfar. 
7911—No, 1——6 | 
